Henry Ward Beecher Quotes

Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being.

He who believes in freedom of the will has never loved and never hated.

When we, through our educational culture, through the media, through the entertainment culture, give our children the impression that human beings cannot control their passions, we are telling them, in effect, that human beings cannot be trusted with freedom.

Man is free; yet we must not suppose that he is at liberty to do everything he pleases, for he becomes a slave the moment he allows his actions to be ruled by passion.

Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.

You can either be informed and your own rulers, or you can be ignorant and have someone else, who is not ignorant, rule over you.

It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

Law is the greatest human invention. All the rest give man mastery over his world, but law gives him mastery over himself.

Freedom is good when the person can use it appropriately. Otherwise it is a disaster.

Personal liberty stands first in order of all rights. Without the control of one's own person, liberty of conscience is impossible. Without the control of one's own person, education is impossible; mental growth is impossible; without the control of one's own person, the opportunities of the world, which are only means of development, cannot be used

No people will tamely surrender their Liberties, nor can any be easily subdued, when knowledge is diffused .… On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauched in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.

It's a free country. I know we have a lot of regulations in the world right now in what we can and can't do. I would rather our people be responsible and not have to be regulated.

Freedom is not of use to those who do not know how to employ it.

The mind which is free from passions is a citadel, for man has nothing more secure to which he can fly for refuge and for the future be inexpugnable . He then who has not seen this is an ignorant man: but he who has seen it and does not fly to this refuge is unhappy.

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites.

Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self.

I have seen so much obstructed potential among people who lack personal discipline, who just slough it off, whatever it is, and who think that nothing matters very much. I want my daughter to have what I think of as a capacity for self-discipline. Not the sort of self-discipline that diminishes her own wild passions, but that makes it safer for her to own those wild passions.

Union of religious sentiments begets a surprising confidence, and ecclesiastical establishments tend to great ignorance and corruption; all of which facilitate the execution of mischievous projects.

Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites…in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

We should scarcely desire things ardently if we were perfectly acquainted with what we desire.

Medicine heals diseases of the body, wisdom frees the soul from passions.

To avoid pain we must know the conditions of health. For the accomplishment of this end we must rely upon investigation instead of faith, upon labor in place of prayer. Most misery is produced by ignorance. Passions sow the seeds of pain.

Ignorance is God's prison. Knowing is God's palace

There's no reason to burn books if you don't read them.

It's a library, only the stupid or the evil are afraid of those